Day 11, didn’t write a thing. Sat down to write after a long day of running around, still feeling a little high from finishing that proposal – and lay down for an hour, only to wake up the next morning.
Day 12, pretty much the same thing. I did spend a few minutes finding a file that I want(ed) to revise for the Indian book chapter (non-peer reviewed, based on conference proceedings from 2012 at the University of Manipur, but a quick, guaranteed publication). Tried to get into the office to copy more photo memory cards, but I had a couple of financial matters to tend to, and by the time I finished there wasn’t much point to go in for just an hour. Will go in tomorrow (Friday).
Day 13, stayed at home because I’ve got to get this place tidied up, as the cat sitter, mortgage appraiser, alarm repair/upgrade people, and quite possibly insurance assessor and refrigerator repair all have to come up this month. Also did some laundry of sweaters and other things that need to hang up to dry outside in the sun. But I did carve time to go to the local library and reactivate my account, work on the computers there where there is A/C. So I did that and actually read through part of the paper I want to revise for this book chapter, and it’s terrible! There is no way I will be able to revise this into a publishable short article in a week or ten days. Let me rephrase that. There are some intriguing ideas if they were only worked out (which would take a book and a hell of a lot of literature research), but not in just 3,000 words. I don’t remember what I was thinking when I gave this paper, except that given the timing (early 2012), it was right after my big bad yea r of moving in to take care of my mom, leaving my full-time job, and having full-blown writer’s block. So it reads like I was scrambling for something to say. The good thing was, probably no one was paying attention, and I remember at that conference that one of the Indian academics confessed to me people couldn’t understand our English in our deliveries, so I’m not feeling embarrassed in retrospect, but there’s no way I can go to print with this, without extensive expansion and revision.
So… what to do? I emailed an archivist who recorded a talk I gave at a symposium in Vermont in 2013, from notes. I have the notes, but I don’t remember where that pad is (I remember the notepad) and I don’t know that I could reconstruct it from those minimal notes. But there is a video, and the archivist has the link, so I can revise from a transcription. But I need to brainstorm about what to send.
Also, I need to do about 4 interviews for my paper at next week’s conference. The first person told me we’ll meet next week. I’m leaving on Friday. I have about 5 other emails and phone numbers to follow up with. I only have part of Saturday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday to get these done. Plus, I am worried about leaving the cat for a week without A/C if we have a heat wave while I’m away.
Also, Monday we have the first meeting of our faculty writing group. We are supposed to do a planning exercise beforehand, which I will do in the office tomorrow. As many as six faculty are interested, but not all can come at the set time.
2019 Summer Writing Challenge 